DOUBLE TROUBLE

Panicked Trump Cries ‘CHEATING’ in Wild Election Meltdown

The 80-year-old president panics over an election race where the Republicans have the same name.

Donald Trump is freaking out about a bizarre situation in Alaska, where two Republicans named Dan Sullivan are running on the same midterm ballot.

The 80-year-old president said he is “very concerned” about incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, who is not only running against leading Democratic challenger Mary Peltola but also another Republican, Dan J. Sullivan.

Trump and others fear that having two Sullivans on the Nov. 3 ballot could hurt the incumbent if voters accidentally cast their ballots for the wrong one.

Trump and other Republicans have accused Dan J. Sullivan of being a sham candidate who only wants to appear on the ballot to siphon votes from the senator, an accusation he denies.

“I am very concerned about the Dan S. Sullivan Race for the U.S. Senate in Alaska in that it is totally confusing, with the Dumocrats putting up another man, totally unrelated to Politics, named Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.,” Trump posted on Wednesday night.

“It’s ridiculous that the Court didn’t stop this SCAM. Even 1, 2, or 3% could make the difference. Dan S. Sullivan is leading by a lot, but this is CHEATING in an Election, and the Judge that allowed this to happen should be ashamed of himself.

“We are looking at powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the Ballot, and holding the Democrats accountable for their Election Interference, in the pursuit of Justice and Fairness,” he added.

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Dan J. Sullivan was disqualified from running on Alaska’s primary ballot in August after Republicans complained his candidacy was an interference tactic against the incumbent, before the Alaska Supreme Court overturned the decision.

Alaska is one of the key Senate seats Democrats hope to flip in November as they seek to seize control of the upper chamber.

Multiple polls suggest that Peltola, a former congresswoman, is the narrow favorite to win the midterm election in a contest featuring four candidates, including both Sullivans.

How much this has to do with voters inadvertently backing the wrong Sullivan is debatable.

Alaska uses a ranked-choice voting system in which voters rank candidates on their ballots in order of preference in a general election. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and ballots cast for that candidate are redistributed according to voters’ next choices.

In this scenario, if a voter ranks both Sullivans, their vote could still count toward the incumbent in the final round. If a ballot ranks only one candidate, it is exhausted and therefore does not count toward the final matchup.

Scott Kendall, an Alaska lawyer who pushed for the state to adopt ranked-choice voting in 2020, said the system “neutralizes” any major threat posed by the second Sullivan to the incumbent’s election hopes.

“Any voter who is truly confused as to which Dan is which can simply rank them both and be sure that their support for Sen. Sullivan will ultimately be registered in the final results,” Kendall wrote in an August opinion piece for the Anchorage Daily News.

“In the end, the Decoy Dan situation, while unfortunate, is just another in a long line of colorful stunts that have plagued elections across the country for many decades.”

The Daily Beast has contacted both Dan Sullivans for comment.

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